Second contestant eliminated from Strictly Come Dancing

TV star Ross King has been eliminated from Strictly Come Dancing, becoming the second contestant to leave the show.

The results show on Sunday night saw the Scottish presenter and professional dancer, Jowita Przystal, leave the competition following a dance-off against actress Balvinder Sopal and her partner Julian Caillon.

Speaking about his time on the show, King said: “I have loved every single minute of it. I would like to say thank you to everyone who has supported us, all the people who voted – they’ve been amazing.

“I want to thank everyone here in this room, backstage, the judges, the crew – every single person here has made me so, so welcome.

“I want to thank a very special lady who has been with me through it all and has been absolutely everything: she’s been a mentor, teacher, carer. I could not have wished for a better partner, and I could not have wished to be on a better show. Thank you judges for all your remarks.”

Przystal thanked King for all his work and time during rehearsals and said: “I hope I’m going to be a little part in your life forever.”

Both couples performed their routines from Saturday night for a second time with King and Przystal dancing the paso doble to the theme from Thunderbirds Are Go, while Sopal and Caillon danced a foxtrot to The Way You Look Tonight from the movie Swing Time.

Following the performances, the judges delivered their verdicts with Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke choosing to save Sopal and Caillon while head judge Shirley Ballas said that she would have voted the same if she needed to use her casting vote.

King was awarded the lowest score on Saturday night with 19 points for his paso doble despite being described as the “most improved” contestant of the week by judge Anton Du Beke.

Meanwhile Ballas said: “You gave 1,000% of yourself… this week you can go home and be very proud of what you’ve achieved.”

Sunday’s results show also featured a routine from Strictly’s professional dancers in tribute to the Minecraft movie along with a musical performance by Chinese pianist Lang Lang of the song Reflection from the Disney film Mulan, accompanied by professional dancers Nancy Xu and Kai Widdrington.

Neighbours actor Stefan Dennis did not perform on Saturday due to illness and received a bye to next week’s show.

He wrote in an Instagram comment that he was “so sorry” to miss it but expected to be back next week with a “rip roaring dance”.

The remaining 13 couples will return to the Strictly dancefloor next week on Saturday at 6.30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.